The Pallar[3] is a caste from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Pallar are mostly agriculturalists in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, and some of them are still involved as agricultural labourers. They are spread across the Tamil diaspora demographic and densely populated in southern parts of Tamil Nadu.

The Pallar are distributed mostly in the districts of Thanjavur, Madurai and Ramanathapuram and, as of 2001, numbered around 2.2 million.[4]

Contents

The name of the caste has previously been spelled as Pallan, however some caste members replaced the Tamil non-honorific terminal-"n" with an honorific "r", resulting in the name Pallar; a similar process was seen in the fellow Dalit Paraiyar (or Paraiyan) community.[5]

The Pallar name may be derived from pallam, which means a pit or low-lying area. This aligns with their traditional occupation of cultivators of the low wetlands. However, there is literary evidence that suggests that pallars are farmers who produced large quantities of food grains.and they were traditional farmers.[6]

The change of name from Mallar to Pallar is thought to have been imposed upon them after the decline of the rule, when the leaders (nayaks) of competing tribes wanted to suggest a degradation in status. Some Pallars today prefer the Mallar name due to their belief that Pallar is a derogatory term.[7][6]

The ancient people were described as farmers. The leader of the group, called the vendan (Indran) was later called the god of their land.[8][9][10][11] Nowadays, community members prefer to refer to themselves as Devendra Kula Vellalar, a name connoting they were created by the god Devendra.[7] In support of a name-change to DKV, ,Pallars have undertaken hunger strikes and rallies. In January 2011, the government of Tamil Nadu appointed a one-man commission to consider this latest change mainly for their votes.[12][6]

The Pallar are the focus of a genre of Tamil poetry known as pallu. The genre developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, and depicts the Pallar hero dealing with the jealousies of his two wives and the oppression of his landlord in a satirical depiction of Pallar zeitgeist. The pallu, while maintaining its basic storyline, developed into many forms, with the Mukkudal pallu the oldest, including depiction of the struggles between Shaivites and Vaishnavites.[13]

Among the Christian Tamils of Sri Lanka, the genre has been modified into nanapallu, a genre where the same story is told, but with the satirical and erotic elements replaced by Christian religious themes.[14]

Pallu poems are part of chitrilakiyangal in Tamil literature. Pallu poems were also known as 'aesal'(a kind of ironical poem). They were written during the Nayak rule. The first pallu poem was 'mukkoodar pallu'. Many pallu poems were written which include vaiyapuri pallu, sengottu pallu, thandigai kanagaraayan pallu.[clarification needed] All the Pallu poems consist of a Pallan who has got two wives. It also explains about the farming and the life of a Pallar farmer.[15]

The party waited for the last four years in the hope of the Government would come out with a gazettte notice, to bring Pallar, Kurumbar, Kaladi, Mooppan, Devendra Kulathan and Pannadi, which have a six to eight per cent population in Tamil Nadu, under ...

Chennai: When 800 Dalits of the Pallar caste which included 200 out of total 300 families in Meenakshipuram village of Tamil Nadu, converted to Islam on February 19, 1981, the incident of mass conversion brought this small village at the foothills of ...

The Devendra Charitable Trust, an organisation claiming to represent the Pallar community, will hold a meet in Madurai early in August to pass a resolution calling upon the State government to declare the seven SC sub-castes – Pallar, Kudumbar, Pannadi ...

Elaborating the efforts taken by PT in the last 30 years to declare six SC sub castes - Pallar, Pannadi, Kudumbar, Kaalaadi, Muppar and Devendrakulatar - as Devendrakula Vellalars, Krishnasamy said because of his party's persistent effort, the previous ...

Dr. Krishnasamy said that his party had been raising its voice for over three decades for issuance of a G.O. to recognise Pallar, Taladi, Moopar, Udumbar, Pannadi and others as Devendra Kula Vellalars. “The fight will continue until it is achieved.

The protagonist, Seeni, who belongs to Pallar community, mocks at that name punning on the Tamil word 'peththuru' (cull out) thus: “Sounds like someone's knees being pulled off … or eyes being gouged. I'll have to remember it like that”. The Christian ...